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Review: Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition GEN. II Interconnect

Category: Cables

Associated Music:

Patricia Barber Companion
Count Basie 88 Basie Street
Tracy Chapman New Beginning
Golden String Audio Repertory Top 12 In Gold
Norah Jones Come Away With Me
Luther Kent Luther Kent & Trick Bag Live
Diana Krall Live In Paris
Hugh Masekela Hope
Buddy Rich Keep the Customer Satisfied
Sonny Rollins This Is What I Do
Santana Supernatural
Keb Mo
The Phip Collins Big Band "A Hot Night In Paris"

Many of you might remember that in May of 2003 I wrote a review on the Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition Interconnect. Since that time, Robert C. Schult, proprietor/designer, has developed a Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.

Since I was thoroughly impressed with the original interconnect and speaker cable, I could not imagine what improvements could have been made. Therefore, out of curiosity, I had to hear the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II.

I recommend you read the original review first (http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?rcabl&1052269499&openusid&zzLak&4&5#Lak) to better understand this current review of the Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnect.

The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II interconnects continue to be extremely smooth, fast, neutral and transparent. They don’t favor one frequency over another and continue to be very coherent, allowing one to hear deep within a recording. The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnects continue to convey the force, speed and robustness of a live music performance (if the rest of your system is capable of handling it).

The improvements I heard, original Midnight Silver Edition vs. the Generation II, are as follows:

1) I hesitate to use the cliche, but the music sounded as if a veil had been lifted. In a very positive respect, the music sounded more forward (but relaxed), as if I had changed my seating at a live concert and moved several rows closer to the stage.

2) The mids and highs were crisper, while the entire spectrum of music was even more dynamic in the area of micro details and resolution.

3) There was more bass slam.

I did notice that while the original Midnight Silver Edition sounded good as soon as I installed them, they continued to improve with two hours of use. The Generation IIs sounded good as soon as they were installed; however, they matured and sounded even better after four hours of use.

When I received the Generation II interconnects, the literature which was included inside of the package stated they were the Generation II. When I compared my original Midnight Silver Edition to the Generation II, they looked identical (although the generation II was an improvement in sound as stated above). I assume in the future there will be some type of permanent marking designating them as Generation II.

Construction of the Midnight Silver Edition interconnects continues to be excellent.

I continue to highly recommend you give the Midnight Silver Edition Original or Generation II a try if you are in the market for interconnects.



Associated gear
Parasound C/BD-2000 Belt Drive Transport
Dodson Audio DA-217 mkII DA converter / Upgrade to 218 software
First Sound Presence Tube preamp / with upgreded power supply
Cary Audio Design CAD-2a3 SE Tube amp
Bel Canto Evo 200.2 Digital Amp
Cain & Cain Abby Speaker with Fostex FE 199 E driver
Fostex T90A Horn Super Tweeter
Velodyne F-1200x Subwoofer
Ridge Street Audio Designs Midnight Silver Edition Interconnects and Speaker Cables
i2Digital Interconnect
Bass Euphoria Speaker cable
Purist Audio Proteus Rev.B Power cord (20 amp IEC)
BMI Whale Elite MK II Power cord
BMI Shark Power cord
Absolute Power Cords Cryogenically Treated
#4 VH Audio Flavor Cryo’d power cable
220 Amp Isolation Transformer feeding dedicated sub-panel
Equi=Tech 2Q AC Balanced-filter
Clear Image T-4 power line isolator
DeZorel G2 power line isolator
Sistrum Platform SP-6 Rack
Star Sound Audio Points/Coupling Disc's Tweak
Star Sound SP 004 Sistrum Platforms Tweak
Bybee Quantum Force Filters (IC’s) Tweak
Bybee Quantum Speaker Filters Tweak
Virtual Dynamic Cryo'd # 10 Copper Wire & Breaker Tweak
Hubbell’s 5362 Tweak
Wattgate 381 Outlet Tweak
Furutech Outlet Tweak
Acme Silver Cryo’d Outlet Tweak
Polycrystal Cable Towers Tweak


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HMS Topline IC and SC (not the brand new ones they came out with recently).
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Ridge Street Audio Midnight Silver Edition
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miker
16 posts
 
I ordered a pair of RSA Midnight silver S/C and I/C after reading some of the original reviews. Actually, I was only really interested in new speaker cables. I was quite pleased with my current cables, but they were only 4 footers, and after moving, I needed something longer. At the last minute, I ordered a set of I/Cs as well. My order went through just as Robert was switching to the GenII so I agreed to wait the extra couple weeks for the GenII's. Well the wait was worth it. At first, I wasn't impressed. The cables had been cooked, but apparently these new cables require a different treatment then the originals. There was more detail in the music, but for lack of a better description, there was no emotion there. After about 40-50 hours things had changed dramatically. I was amazed, I kept playing one disc after another. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. The sound had improved in just about every way. More detail, extended highs, tighter/deeper bass, larger soundstage with more precise imaging. What amazed me the most was that 'despite' all those improvements, the sound was still musical. I havn't heard many different cables for comparison, but my impression has been that more detail from better cables can come at the expense of a more sterile sound that prevents me from making that connection to the music. Analytically, I can convince myself that yes, these are better, but emotionally I am left cold. Not so the RSA cables. What comes out the end of these cables is music.
lak's avatar
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lak OP
4,642 posts
 
Miker,
Out of curiosity, what components are you using?
Thanks,
4yanx
1,576 posts
 
I have a certain understanding for the "generation-next" issue when it comes to cables. On the other hand, would you NOT respect someone who is devoted to their product and continually strives to improve its performance? Anyone who has dealt personally with Robert knows that his is a sincere desire to provide the best cables he can make and is not concerned with marketing ploys. Plus, without saying more, his attention to those who purchased the original version and upgraded to the GenII's is more than reasonable. Hints at anything less than his genuine intentions are totally without foundation.

That rant completed, a word or ten about the cables. I had the opportunity to do a head-to-head between the GenI's and the Pure Note V4 (what I later learned were not V3's as I had thought). I had the Pure Notes in my system at the time and was trying the RSA's on a trial. I really liked the Pure Notes and was skeptical to even give the RSA a try, but did so upon recommendation of those from whom I received other dead-on advice. After the comparison, I decided to keep the RSA's. Don't get me wrong, the Pure Notes are EXCELLENT cables and might prove a better choice in some systems. But, I thought the RSA's were more musical in MY system. By musical, I mean that they conveyed a sense of live music more than any other IC I had tried previously. At first I thought the bass was a little shy, but the bass came in strong and extremely defined after about 40 hours. When using the RCA's it was the first time that I had characterized bass as defined and detailed, usually saving such descriptors for the higher end. Very nice. If I had to pick a bone at all it was that the midrange (especially vocals) in my system was a just sliver too far back in the presentation for my taste.

This small issue disappeared with the GENII's and I found their performance superior in most all respects to even the GenI’s. Because I liked the GenI’s better in my system than the Pure Notes, and I liked the GenII’s more than the GenI’s, I think that the GenII’s are better than the Pure Notes, by extension. IN MY SYSTEM, again said.

I am going to now quote a portion of Lak’s earlier post because I think that it most accurately sums up the performance of the GenII’s and left me thinking – “I wish I’d said that!”

“The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II interconnects continue to be extremely smooth, fast, neutral and transparent. They don’t favor one frequency over another and continue to be very coherent, allowing one to hear deep within a recording. The Midnight Silver Edition Generation II Interconnects continue to convey the force, speed and robustness of a live music performance (if the rest of your system is capable of handling it).”

I would only add that the detail of these cables is amazing. When I hear the soundstage, the phrase that comes to mind is “open architecture” – the image of each instrument’s sound seemingly enveloped in its own space.

So, I highly recommend these cables, as others have done. Next, I should like to try the speaker cables.

Equipment
McCormack DNA-225 amplifier
Herron VTSP-1A linestage
K&K Custom-built phonostage (A KILLER a review in the writing)
Aesthetix IO phonostage
Nottingham Spacedeck/OL Illustrious/Shelter 501MkII
Sony SCD-777ES CDP
Sony ST-3950 Tuner (Modified by Don Scott and it replaced my Tandberg!)
Vandersteen 3A sig speakers
Ridge Street Audio IC’s throughout
Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables
Audio Magic Stealth Power Purifier
PC’s too numerous to list
Tweaks too numerous to list
miker
16 posts
 
Lak,

Components are:

Musical Fidelity 3.2 CD Player
Musical Fidelity Nuvista M3 amp
Dynaudio Contour 1.3 mk II speakers
Ridge Street Audio midnight silver S/C and I/Cs.

I realize that this system is unbalanced with the cables and amp a level higher then the speakers and CD player. I do plan to eventually upgrade the speakers and CD player. Actually, if it wasn't for the fact that I needed longer speaker cables, I probably would have upgraded the speakers before the cables. I am glad now that I didn't, because I can now hear what these speakers are fully capable of.
psychicanimal
1,738 posts
 
I got my set of Gen II's this afternoon! What can I say? Well, first that Robert asked me to send him my set of MSE so that he could burn them in on this new cable cooker he had devised. The Gen I and II's were to be shipped back together. Now my cables were going to have the cooking as a constant, not a variable. I plugged the new ICs while I was mopping my kitchen and laundry room and said to myself; "what the hell, I'll start breaking them in while I finish cleaning..." I was playing this new salsa CD I got at a Latin festival two weeks ago, "Sammy de León". He's the hottest young timbales player out there and this is his first CD. This CD is the first Latin release of a small independent label speciallizing in jazz & classical music, so the recording quality is there. I could hear more horn energy, deeper, tighter bass, more musical content and while I was cleaning the bathroom I heard a timbales solo snap with such force I said to myself, "These cables are a definite improvement!" I always say that if I do an upgrade to my system and I can hear the improvement in the next room then it's worth it. The Gen II is worth it.
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